I saw a bit of news about this in my favorite Facebook group (Expats in Panama). There are bus stops now in Panama City with free WiFi. How cool is that!
This basically says on Monday, they started “Smart City” to connect people with internet for free at 50 bus stops around the city.
These are bus stops that will have internet.
We don’t have this in David, but we do have many places with free internet such as schools, the bus terminal, and Cervantes Park, to name a few. http://internetparatodos.gob.pa/ If you get within range you will see internetparatodos on your list of possible connections. Connect, sign in on the browser page that comes up, and you’re good to go.
Panama can be backwards in some ways, but also very forward in many other important ways.
The Panama Adventure 
Great! Pretty soon we will not need our data plan for our phone and save $11.00 a month!
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There you go! I guess you could do that now if you don’t mind hanging out at the park.
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Us? We are on the move too much! Ha!
You do have to love how fast Panama is progressing!
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I noticed! You just got home and now you are planning another adventure under the water.
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Panama is an incredibly wired place. Not only are there free hotspots like the bus terminal, but there are also places called “Info Plazas” in many towns. These are state-funded cyber cafes under the auspices of SENACYT (Secretaría Nacional de Ciencia, Technología e Innovación). (Governments just LOVE acronyms, don’t they?) There’s one here in Boquerón, there’s one you can see from the bus just off the InterAmericana in Bágla and there’s one in Pedregal, too and those are just the ones I know about.
The one here in Boquerón is located at the Palacio Municipal. The sign outside says, “Cerrar la brecha digital” (To close the digital gap). Inside there are a dozen computer terminals. Granted they aren’t the highest tech units around, but they’re all wired into the web and people who can’t afford to buy a computer can come in during working hours Monday through Saturday and use one for free. There are almost always some kids using them to connect with each other on, (what else?) Facebook or looking up information for school assignments. If there aren’t other people needing to use one they can sit on one all day long, and IT’S FREE!!!
If you bring your notebook or iPad along they offer free Wi-Fi, too. I spent many hours at the local Info Plaza working on my book when I first started living here in Boquerón and the house wasn’t wired for internet access.
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I know. We were impressed when we first got here and it continues to be more and more wired.
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Cable Onda has also public Wifi with their subscribers. One can log in with your code. I have not tried it yet in Boquete.
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Really? I didn’t know that. We are with Cable Onda too, so I’ll have to ask them about that. Thanks for the tip
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Hola Kris,
There is no gratis lunch in my tangled languages. Free WiFi, as in no password required, is a significant risk for data collection. At the very least, spam email avalanche is the minimum one can expect. Virus protection, malware blockers, and a strong firewall will help but nothing is perfect. Exercise extreme causing in your streaming.
Panama loves technology. Watching their TV products shows that but their programs typically use every video effect possible in their productions. WiFi-ing the country without safeguards is a hazard.
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Oh yes, I’m sure, but you do have to sign in with your email address and some basic info before it will let you on (if it is anything like internetparadtodos). If people start having problems with it, maybe they will have to tighten up security. Myself, I have a data plan on my phone so I’m good to go.
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